Chapter five
by PersephonePandora23
Summary: Korra has been taken back to the Southern Pole Tribe where Katara is healing her and Tenzin is watching. Korra is unconscious and is entering a world she has never been to and where she is also unwelcomed. The spirit world does not want Korra, the reason why is uncertain and Korra is running out of time to awaken before the unwelcoming spirits remove her. part one of this chapter


_The voices swam madly through her thoughts; where there origin lay, Korra was uncertain. She could not function correctly, as her limbs felt disconnected and feeble from their usual sturdiness. Korra moaned meekly. The sound echoed a terrifying incoherent noise back to her ears; it sounded so foreign, so unlike her own voice. She could not breathe properly, the air in her lungs felt odd as if oxygen was now replaced with a poisonous gas. Korra moaned again, her voice now joining the multitude of mysterious echoes and chants racking against her mind. _

Katara turned to the unconscious Korra. Her eyes lit with alarm as the moans had began to slither past Korra's cracked lips. Tenzin, stood warily by her side; his shoulders hunched in a defeated position of defiance to the young avatar's condition. Katara shuffled to where Korra lay. She pulled down the several layers of sheets that had wound Korra into a tightly secured cocoon. Katara's hands nimbly position themselves as her habitual healing routine began its course. Without looking back at the aloof Tenzin, Katara addressed him in a cautionary whisper.

"You should speak more softly, Tenzin."

Katara's hands fell back from their hovering location above the young Avatar's heart, and repositioned the quilts. Tenzin turned his head sharply from his mother, unable to gaze in any direction. Guilt ate at his core, and he struggled to maintain distant from the situation.

"There is no need to, Mother." Tenzin said sternly. "Training Korra in secret was obviously a mistake in the beginning."

Katara shook her head, causing the gray locks to swish in the light breeze that whistled through the cracks of the sheltering walls.

"She asked for the training, Tenzin. And as the Avatar, she needs it."

Katara gazed back to the slumbering Avatar. Korra twitched involuntary at the mercy of some unknown nightmarish thought or dream. Katara hesitantly raised a withered hand and gingerly tucked a strand of hair from Korra's flushed face.

"The Avatar state…isn't an easy task." She whispered.

"I should have said no. I should have listened to—"

Tenzin's voice broke off abruptly. He clamped his jaw tightly and forbid his tongue to release her name into the open. Katara inhaled deeply, immediately sensing the anguish in Tenzin's voice.

"Lin will be fine, Tenzin. She has suffered far less than your guard. He is the one that needs the most worry." Katara whispered; her eyes flickered to her right, where in another room the twisted blackened, living corpse clung desperately from life's fleeing embrace.

Tenzin swallowed dryly, still unable to look his mother in the eyes.

"I can never forgive myself. If Pema…"

"But she didn't. Pema is well, frightened but well." Katara interrupted, slowly advancing towards her despairing son.

"…What you need to do is to forgive Korra."

"_Where am I?"_

_Korra's own voice echoed endlessly in the dark; roaming for any existent ear. Instead of a responding voice, a soft melodious string of music arose from the abyss that surrounded the lost Avatar. Korra's heart pounded madly within its confining walls of her chest. The music escalated into a more frantic hum of jumbled notes and screeching noises. It grew louder and louder until the hum seemed to be part of her own being._

"_No! Stop it! STOP!"_

_Korra could feel herself scream desperately, yet the taunting caresses of the approaching familiarity of the Avatar State continued its advance. _

"_Please! STOP!"_

_The hum danced madly in her mind, disorganizing her thoughts, spreading its parasitic melody to the furthest corner in her skull. The hum died into a tremendous chorus of the past voices of all the Avatars, gathering into a parade of awfully great power. _

"_STOP!" _

"_Korra?"_

_The hum died immediately as did the thousands of chants that had taken up its song in a horrifically beautiful chorus. Korra turned to the sound of the new voice. It was alone. It was Aang._

"_Korra?"_

_Suddenly Korra found her feet…she could feel the blood circulating within her limbs. Suddenly she was running, her feet echoing on an unseen floor that screamed every movement she made. Pumping her arms madly, Korra continued towards the voice. _

"_Korra?"_

"_I'm here! I'M HERE!"_

Katara rested a hand on Korra's forehead. Her brow furrowed at the sudden increase of her body heat. She turned to Tenzin, the apparent worry so very evident that Tenzin turned away angrily in disgust. Seizing his coat, he threw his arms into its sleeves and abandoned the scene, his mind blinded with worry and displaced rage. Katara's eyes followed him; the crinkled, worn eyes grew watery as her heart sank. She gazed back down at the trembling Avatar.

"Please, come back to us, Korra."


End file.
